Backpacks as carry on luggage

[lydstar]

Hello,

I recently received an email from Ryan Air informing me of their strict baggage allowance. I was hoping to sneak my backpack on as hand luggage.

I have a Berghaus freeflow lite 35 litre back pack with dimensions 55x36x30.

Ryan Air say cabin baggage should be max 55x40x20.

Are they really as picky as they say? Has anyone flown with them recently? (They weren't like this when I flew with them last summer.)

What do you reckon, risk it and hope I won't have to pay the 30 pounds at the airport baggage fee? hmmmmm...

Thanks if you have any thoughts,
Lydia

 

[viajero]

I did not fly on Ryan air but did fly this past spring on EasyJet and was worried about the same thing. They have the same baggage dimensions for carry on luggage. Mine is a 30 liter pack but stuffed to capacity it barely met the required measurements and I feared it would be slightly too big. I wore my fleece and raincoat and stuffed a couple of things in my pockets to try to reduce the size of my bag. My pack fit into the metal carry on thing that they use to check the size of your bag (I tried it out myself)--nobody seemed to be monitoring this. I noticed lots of people had more/larger items than I did. The website was pretty strongly worded about the rules of carry on luggage and that you could be denied passage if your bag was too big, etc. I would think you would be okay though. I didn't have a problem.

 

[irishpilgrim]

Hi, we recently flew Ryanair to Rodez, France from Dublin and back with backpacks both 35 litres I think. No problem taking them on board. They were not even weighed. Anyhow Ryanair's weight allowance for carry on is 10 kgs which is more generous than most and our packs were less than that.
Good luck and bon camino
Anna

 

[Bridget and Peter]

We flew in March from Stansted with Ryanair with three backpacks as carry on luggage. I've no idea what their volumes were, but we did check the measurements were just about right before we left. In the airport is a device where you can check if your pack will fit into the correct dimensions - if your pack is not completely full and you can squeeze it a bit you should be able to make it fit. Perhaps it would be sensible to have something to tie round to hold it in shape, or maybe bungees?

In the event no one seemed to take much notice, but I wouldn't want to risk it - Ryan air could sting you for an extra £40 or so.

I was told the other day about someone who forgot to print off their return boarding passes when they did their on-line check in and had to cough up an extra £40.

Remember, another challenge of the camino is getting one over on Ryanair! (Take your own food, drink etc - we filled water bottles after going through security by asking at one of the coffee bars in the flight side waiting area, they didn;t mind at all!)

 

[Portia1]

I'm not flying Ryanair but rather a short haul American Airlines flight from DC to Logan airport. I'm really hoping that my pack will pass also. It's real close to the limits in overall size. I've put rubber tips on my collapsible poles so hoping they'll make muster too bungied to the pack. I'm not worried about Iberia as their allowance is a little bigger but AA can be a stickler leaving from Reagan. I do not want to let my pack out of my sight. My husband suggested that I wear two layers of clothes and then simply repack them once I board the Iberia flight. Guess it's a thought. I like someone's idea of carrying the bulky stuff like fleece in a paper bag just to make sure and then repacking once in the air.